Oxford launches first human trial of Ebola vaccine against Bundibugyo strain

Oxford has started recruiting 50 healthy adults for the first human trial of a vaccine against Bundibugyo ebolavirus, aiming to move faster than the virus spreads in central Africa. The Phase 1 study, called BD-Ebov, will test the safety and immune response of the ChAdOx1 BDBV vaccine in volunteers aged 18 to 55 in Oxford, with vaccinations due to begin in the coming weeks if regulators approve the timeline.

Bundibugyo Ebola has been studied far less than the Zaire strain that powered some of the worst Ebola crises, in part because it has been a rarer and less visible threat.

The candidate was built by Oxford’s Vaccine Group and Pandemic Sciences Institute using the same viral-vector platform behind the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 shot. The Serum Institute of India manufactured and stockpiled about 620,000 doses within two weeks and supplied 4,000 investigational doses for the early-stage study.

A Phase 1 trial can show whether a vaccine is safe enough to continue and whether it triggers an immune response. It cannot prove that the shot will prevent Ebola in real-world conditions, stop transmission, or protect communities during a field outbreak. Those answers require larger trials and, in the case of Ebola, the hard test of deployment during active transmission.

The World Health Organization has already recommended prioritizing ChAdOx1 BDBV, along with another candidate, for clinical evaluation as part of the wider outbreak response. The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations is backing the effort with an initial investment of up to $8.6 million, and additional studies in Uganda are being prepared if regulators approve them.